Job Summary

At Walt Disney Animation Studios we have a deep commitment to the philosophy that creativity inspires technology, and technology inspires creativity. Engineers in our Production Technology department are charged with developing and implementing new algorithms to solve unique and challenging problems for all of our animated content. We do this working alongside a user base that shares a collaborative environment with us and uses the code we develop daily.

We are looking for an engineer to join our Production Technology team, targeting development of procedural geometry generation tools used by our artists to construct the rich environments and effects seen in our films.

In this role, you will partner with artists, production leadership, technical directors, cross-team software engineers, researchers, and other technologists across Walt Disney Studios. You will be supporting our current generation of environment tools, as well as designing and implementing innovative workflows and state of the art solutions motivated by our new long-term vision for Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Projects Include

● Partnering with production environment artists & teams to advance our toolset based on the uniquely creative needs of our films

● Supporting our existing legacy procedural toolset, which includes tools for growing vegetation, building groundcover, and managing particle systems.

● Designing and developing a new unified procedural platform for future environment needs, including point distribution, geometry generation, instancing, and effects/simulation

● Maintaining and modernizing our tools with the integration of new libraries, DCCs, and core platform changes

What does it mean to be a developer at Walt Disney Animation Studios?

● Our engineers get the opportunity to work on the full stack of our tools, from developing the underlying algorithms through building intuitive artist-friendly interfaces.

● Work hand in hand with artists and a team of cross-site developers to make the tools we need for the incredibly complex characters/environments featured in our content.

● Develop on top of a highly performant, extendable in-house application framework.

● Develop new artist-centric interaction models using the latest hardware and technologies.

You will succeed in this role if you have:

● An understanding of computer graphics foundational concepts, and algorithms

● The ability to quickly produce clear, testable code with an understanding of the importance of performant solutions for user interaction

● Excellent problem solving, troubleshooting and debugging skills

● Ability to collaborate with team members across different disciplines including directly interfacing with stakeholders to understand requirements

● Exemplary communication, teamwork and problem solving skills, balancing the timeliness of solutions with their sustainability. Able to prioritize competing demands based on business value.

Key Qualifications:

● 1-5 Years designing and developing complex user facing software, ideally in a studio environment

● Proficiency in C++, ideally C++11/14

● Experience with scripting languages including Python

● Experience building clean interfaces using modern UI development toolkits

● Experience designing APIs from scratch as well as designing APIs that extend existing frameworks while maintaining established patterns and architecture.

● Knowledge of animation, graphics techniques and algorithms

Bonus Qualifications:

● Strong mathematical fundamentals, including linear algebra and numerical methods

● Strong understanding of coding process, standards, continuous integration and testing principles

● Masters in Computer Science Required Education

● BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or equivalent experience

The hiring range for this position in California is $112,586.00 to $151,030.00 per year, which factors in various geographic regions. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

#DISNEYTECH